Cognis holds steady in 2001
The specialty chemicals producer Cognis has said it managed to maintain its market position during the course of the sale of the company last year. The sale of the company by Henkel KGaA to the investor group Permira, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Schroder Ventures Life Sciences was completed on 30 November 2001.
Net earnings for the financial year 2001 were Eur174 million (Eur221 million in 2000) on sales of Eur3,133 million (Eur3,195 million in 2000). The company attributed the earnings decline to the costs associated with the acquisition and restructuring expenditure, especially in the USA. "If we discount the effects of the exceptional items on our results, then our return on sales for 2001 was about 8.1% compared to 7.4% last year," said Joachim Söhngen, Chief Financial Officer. Turnover in the oranganic specialties business division that includes the Textile Technology sub group amounted to Eur1,171 million, with the Leather Technology sub group maintaining similar results achieved in 2000.
Sales in Europe, where just over half of turnover was earned, increased by 1%. In Latin America and Africa last year‘s sales figures were matched. Due to the state of the economy, sales in North America decreased by 6% and in the Asia/Pacific region by 5%.
